Al-Sadr at Soleimani’s Funeral Tables

Author: Arkan Radeef

The evil of two-faced people becomes unified in deceit, while others manifest duplicity differently. Muqtada Al-Sadr, with protesters, declares that Iran should be expelled, yet with Iranian officials, he performs dutifully like a submissive, diligent student—or rather, a beggar—appeasing them at the funeral tables and homes of Qassem Soleimani, the criminal, and his followers. Their sick hearts are marked by hypocrisy and manipulation, like foxes; in their souls, they wallow in the dirty mud of Iran, serving as tails of Iran’s processions.

An Iranian media outlet published a photo showing Muqtada Al-Sadr, leader of the Al-Mahdi Army militia, offering condolences for the killing of Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike. Al-Sadr is pictured sitting alongside unidentified individuals. Following Soleimani’s death, he called on his followers to prepare to “protect Iraq,” indicating the readiness of the Mahdi Army. Yet the question remains: where were Al-Sadr’s followers when peaceful demonstrators were killed in Dhi Qar, Najaf, Baghdad, Basra, and Karbala on Soleimani’s orders?

Al-Sadr and his followers are mere subordinates of Iran, like other militias, though each fulfills different roles. Muqtada ordered the establishment of the Mahdi Army, which became the nucleus from which several criminal militias split, including Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq, Saraya Al-Salam, the Abu Al-Fadl Al-Abbas Brigade, Al-Nujaba, and the Al-Mu’amal Army. Countless Iraqis have been killed by these groups. Many Mahdi Army leaders received training in Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps camps.

Al-Sadr commanded his army of criminals and killers to murder Iraqis. Notably, during the bombing of the Imam Hassan Al-Askari shrine in 2006, more than 200 Iraqis were killed and over 168 mosques destroyed within two days. The Mahdi Army transformed Baghdad’s Medical City into a trap for opponents, kidnapped thousands of young men, and established execution sites on the outskirts of the city. The hands of Al-Sadr and his followers are stained with crimes: theft of billions of Iraqi dinars, corruption, seizure of thousands of homes, forced displacements, and a long list of murders and thefts known only to God.

Leaders of Shia militias and political parties are utterly loyal to Iran, functioning as soldiers of its expansionist agenda. They advocate the devastation and destruction of Iraq, seeking to make the country a component of the Persian imperial project. They have ceded the fate of Iraqis to Iran, embedding Iraq within its regional ambitions across the Arab world and the Middle East.